In March, demand for party balloons that accounted for 10% or more of the total helium consumption, according to market consultant Phil Kornbluth, disappeared when industrial demand slowed in line with shelter-in-place orders and the global helium supply shortage of the last two years ended. Helium researchers saw a noticeable gap between supply and demand for industrial applications and began to expand work to increase the supply of helium.
Other nations, including Russia and South Africa, are considering moving into helium production to ease periodic shortages. Qatar and Russia are exploring ways to extract and sell helium at their own natural gas fields. More ambitious capitalists take note of natural gas supply chains and try to integrate helium extraction into their processes for larger projects.
A new and expanded liquefied natural gas plant for the production of helium products is scheduled to go into operation this year in Qatar and Algeria, increasing the supply that already exceeds the increased demand, it said. The 1.8 billion riyals Helium-2 plant in Ras Laffan, a power city with a production capacity of 1.3 billion cubic feet per day, is owned by Qatar Gas Ross, a Qatari-controlled Ross Gas Company. It is the largest helium processing plant with a daily production of 173 million tons of liquid helium. With the commissioning of a second plant at the plant, Qatar will become the largest exporter and producer of helium gas supplier in the world.
The Qatar North Dome gas field accounted for more than 28% of the helium gas reserves of the world in 2013. Qatar is considered to have the largest reserves of ultra-light gas followed by Iran, which shares the field with Russia and the United States. The United States produces 75% of the world’s helium, with more than 40% of the helium used in the United States at the Federal Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas. Algeria, Russia, Australia, Canada, Poland and other countries supplement the US in supplying the world with helium, with the US accounting for 55% of global supply.
Most people know that helium is used in balloons and party balloons as a tastier gas but they may not have specified all types of how it is used. Light air is a gas that lifts gases, and helium is most commonly used as a lifting gas for airships and balloons. Blimps, airships, zeppelins, anti-aircraft balloons, weather balloons and other light aircraft use helium as lifting gas.
Helium is mainly used as cooling gas for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) used in medical facilities. Liquid helium is also used in cryogenics, where it has the largest single use and absorbs about a quarter of the production for cooling superconducting magnets, but the most important commercial application is the MRI scanners. Other industrial applications include helium as pressure purging gas for protective atmospheres and arc welding processes, such as the cultivation of crystals from silicon wafers, which make up about half of the gas produced.
Helium is used because it is inert, has a low viscosity and is easier to breathe than other gases under pressure. It is also used as an inert gas in the welding process, so that materials are contaminated and weakened by air and nitrogen at welding temperatures. Helium gases are lighter than air due to their low density, which explains why they are known to be used in decorative balloons.
Helium is also used in medicine, scientific research, arc welding, cooling gases, aircraft coolants, nuclear reactors and in cryogenic research to detect gas leaks. In the industry of electronic, defense and aerospace, helium is used as an inert gas to cool medical and diagnostic equipment and maintain low temperatures in laboratories.
Helium is not only one of the most abundant elements in the universe; it is also the most flexible and has practical applications in everything from balloon filling to air bubbles. Although you may not see or smell it, helium is found in many everyday applications in technology, from medicine to cars. Liquid helium is mainly used for medical purposes as a cooling medium for magnets and in the processes of MRI scanners and NMR spectrometers.
One of the most widespread uses of helium comes from the production of semiconductor chips. Telephones, televisions, computers and tablets contain chips, and these devices would not be possible without helium, which is used at various stages of the production process.
Since helium is a low specific heat gas and has a lower boiling and melting point than any other element intended as a substitute, it has important applications. It can be used as a laser at high temperatures because it does not connect or react with other elements. For industrial use, helium can be obtained from natural gas by fractional distillation, which can contain up to 7% helium.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) also uses superconductors to cool liquid helium. Since superconductors work best when surrounded by extremely cold helium, helium is also used in the space industry to cool satellites and instruments, as well as fuel and coolant for spacecraft. The helium production worldwide was 3.2 million kg (18.8 million standard cubic meters) of helium in 2014, with the most use (32% of the total production in 2014) in cryogenic applications. The most impressive systems mainly contain cooling superconducting magnets for medical MRI scanners and NMR spectrometers.
The largest helium production is in the United States, where about 53 million cubic meters of helium are extracted from natural gas and about 75 million cubic meters are extracted from the national helium reserves annually. Beginning in 2018 approximately 3 billion cubic feet (84 million cubic feet) of the remaining sales will be limited to federal users, including universities that use helium to fund research. The idea is that if the private market can figure out how much helium to use it can keep the price of helium low relative to its scarceness, resulting in a rapid sale of much of the gas.
Arun kumar 